History of the Inquisition from Its Establishment Till the Present Time — John Shaqi
History of the Inquisition from Its Establishment Till the Present TimeSime, William
History
History of the Inquisition from Its Establishment Till the Present Time
Sime, William
Inquisition; Inquisition -- History
But enough, and more than enough has been brought forward, on this
inhuman and revolting practice of men, who nevertheless style
themselves priests of the compassionate Redeemer!! Rather may we
not call them and does not their horrid conduct entitle them to the
appellation of ministers of darkness, and monsters of cruelty? "My soul
come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be
not thou united."
Such is a specimen of the tortures of the Inquisition, when there is
not sufficient proof of the crimes of which their unhappy victims are
accused. Instances, however, are on record, where the torture has been
inflicted on persons who are condemned to death, as an additional
punishment! One of these may be mentioned here. William Lithgow a
British subject, informs us in his travels, that, in 1620, he was
apprehended at Malaga, in Spain, as a spy, and exposed to the most
cruel torments on what is called the wooden horse. But nothing having
been extorted from him, he was delivered over to the Inquisition,
as a heretic, under pretence that his journal contained blasphemies
against the Pope and the Virgin Mary. Having acknowledged, in presence
of the Inquisitor, that he was a Protestant, he was admonished to
return to the Popish faith, and allowed eight days in a dungeon to
deliberate on his conversion. In the mean time the Inquisitor and his
minions often visited him, in order to persuade him to renounce his
opinions—sometimes promising, sometimes threatening, and sometimes
disputing with him on the heretical nature of his tenets. All their
efforts being in vain, Lithgow was condemned, first to suffer eleven
of the cruelest tortures, and then to be carried privately to Grenada,
and burnt at midnight. He was accordingly carried to the hall of
torture, where the inhuman process of filling him with water till he
was ready to burst, was first resorted to. They next tied a cord round
his neck, and rolled him seven times along the floor, till he was
nearly strangled, after which they hung him up by the feet till all
the water in his bowels had disgorged itself at his mouth. These and
other cruelties having been finished, during which, notwithstanding
the agonies he endured, he made no confession, he was remanded to his
dungeon, till the last part of his sentence could be executed. But,
by a remarkable interposition of Divine Providence, he was shortly
afterwards delivered out of their hands, and arrived safely in England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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